What was the purpose of the large clock faces on the aft masts of WWII era ships? All the images I've seen of them the faces only go to nine or ten o'clock and many can't be seen from inside the gun turrets. What were they?
If the Kaiser had never fired Bismarck and subsequently not started a naval arms race with Great Britain, does the Royal Navy expand as much as it did? Would they see France/US as their eventual enemy instead of Germany? Maybe a UK/German/Austro-Hungarian alliance in the eventual first World War, depending how Russia and Austria-Hungarians handle the Serbian question.
A very unofficial comment by Admiral King regarding how the Bureau of Ordinance was progressing on the Mk 14 torpedo problems- "I've seen better organized monkey shlt fights at the zoo.."
I've read a book called White Coolies by Australian Army nurse Betty Jeffrey about the experiences of her and her fellow nurses and their terrible treatment after their hospital ship was sunk during the evacuation of Singapore in 1942. AHS Centaur wasn't the only hospital ship put down by the Japanese. It's well worth a read. Sink the Bismarck is an epic film and the only flaw is the portrayal of Lutjens as a rabid Nazi, which he certainly wasn't. I shudder to think of the mess it would be if remade today.
A remake of Sink the Bismarck could be good in the right hands, but I think the odds are it would be dreck. I agree with you regarding Lutjens' portrayal in the movie. When Hitler visited Bismarck Lutjens didn't give him the Nazi salute, he used the old Naval salute.
Sink the Beysmarck (by Michael Bey). The Bismarck is sunk by the USS Iowa and New Jersey after being disabled by an F14 alpha strike by Adm Nimitz (the man not the ship).
"Monkey Brand" Stephenson, the Terror of Tobermory, boarded a ship under training, seized his hat and thrw it on the deck "Unexploded bomb" he roared "deal with it". One of the crew promptly kicked it overboard. "Well done!" he roared , then pointing to his hat in the oggin "Man overboard. He can't swim - save him!"
To which the apocryphal respose from the AB was, "Can't swim Sir, nobody ever bothers to learn in Stornaway." followed by an aside to his 'oppo' (whilst pointing at the hat) "Nobby. Do you want a medal?"
As for "the most realistic portrayal of naval combat", I've understood that "Master & Commander", despite being fictitious (with Thomas Cochrane being one source of inspiration) is very good at depicting naval warfare, during the age of sail.
Regarding torpedoes, it's worth mentioning the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. Torpedoes were expected to play a major role and they proved to be largely ineffective in battles (though useful for finishing off crippled ships). This war also showed that gunfire was effective at 2-3 times longer ranges than expected (and well outside the range of torpedoes). Mines, however, were far more effective than expected.
The Centaur was a Blue Funnel passenger ship converted to a Hospital ship. The wreck was located in December 2009 by David Mearns who also located the wrecks of the HMS Hood, HMAS Sydney, Musashi, Derbyshire and many more. The Centaur had in 1941 been the first vessel to pick up survivors from the Kormorant.
23:06 I'd argue that, given the time element of the question the Japanese also suffer in the sense that the big Kido Butai loses 2/3 of its strength six months after starting the war. Therefore, the strategic threat presented by the Japanese navy doesn't last nearly as long as that presented by the Italian fleet.
Wow! The questions now appear a the bottom of the video screen with the time stamp - a pretty awesome new feature! (with timeline segmentation for all the other questions!)
"Hermes was one of the 12 Olympian Gods and was god of trade, thieves, travelers, sports, athletes, and border crossings" Couldn't have picked a much better name for a pirate hunting warship with an air wing. (I'm guessing they enjoyed sports on the off days)
One other item to consider with superstructure aerodynamics is the locations of the funnels and the effect on the mainmast. For example the mainmast on HMS Dreadnought was abaft the forward funnel. Between the heat and exhaust gases made the foretop difficult to operate.
Sink the Bismark - my brother and I would get up and watch it anytime it was scheduled. Almost always in the 02:00 time slot on US TV. Loved Kenneth More in "A Night To Remember," also.
I'll have to see if I can punch Sink the Bismarck up on the youtubes this afternoon. Been a long time since I've watched. Good way to kill the afternoon as tropical weather rolls past.
This is one of the few things I look forward to during the week drach minus talking & catching up with a couple of my close friends so thanks from the bottom of my heart mate.
Regarding Russian Battleships: I recall reading somewhere that Russian industry during WWII was only able to produce armor plates up to about 9” in thickness. As you say I suppose they could have layered multiple plates together or perhaps used some sort of spaced armor scheme.
@@SynchroScore that is the deck crew. They are a colorful bunch and the different colors represent what they do. Plane captains, ordinance, fueler, etc. And probably a few off duty personnel as well.
@@hokutoulrik7345 I know about the rainbow uniforms for flight deck crews, I just didn't expect to see off-duty personnel standing around in khaki shorts or t-shirts. Then again, I'm not that familiar with shipboard dress code.
As for ships in severe weather on of the more memorable days from my time in the U.S. Navy was when my Charles F Adams class destroyer was in 30 foot seas.
Speaking of torpedoes, the torpedo(in all it's forms - ship launched, submarine launched and air launched) sank more capital ships and aircraft carriers than shell fire. Early on the gun was supposed to incapacitate the enemy ship and the FAR more lethal torpedo was to be used to "clean up the battle space" and sink disabled enemy ships (one of the major reasons capital ships continued to be fitted with torpedo tubes). For instance, the US aerial torpedo in it's final form (1944 and later) achieved a 40% hit rate and were the primary weapons responsible for the sinking of Yamato and Musashi, as a for instance.
I always thought that the movie "The Cruel Sea" was a very good portrail of the battle of the Atlantic. Oh and many thanks for another fantastic episode of Drydock!
Yes. Everyone signs up to be Duke of York or Washington, not Scharnhorst or Kirishima. In Harms Way has a final battle sequence that I always found interesting, albeit incredibly distracting when the glaringly obvious models are floating in a pool or being blown up.
23:06 Let's define our terms. Did WWII start with the invasion of Manchuria, the invasion of Ethiopia, the invasion of Poland, or any other invasion or war going on at the time (Hungary and Romania, Finland and USSR, etc.)? The "official" start of WWII by Western historians was September 1939. The Chinese do not agree.
@@grahamstrouse1165 Not really, the Spanish Civil War is considered as a prelude to the World War and not a part of it by both historians and the general public
I usually am making dinner after work to your fantastic content. That admiral King bit and the deep sea diving Burke created a real mess lol, totally worth it I might add XD
18:55 Oh god no Wargaming look away. No no no this is real life content please don't look this part of the video... I SAID N- ah god their ego is hurted. They'll have to add soviet nuclear submarine to compensate the hard truth of historical facts... GG Drach!
I knew there was a reason to love the Kriegsmarine besides the snazzy uniforms. Courtmarshalling and arresting incompetent development officers is almost unheard of.
@@vespelian5274 Not the only actor to portray a character in a war film in which he had some experience. British actor Richard Todd played Maj John Howard in the Longest Day. He served under Howard at Pegesas Bridge. There is a scene where a soldier reports to Maj Howard. In the real battle it was Richard Todd so you could say he reported to himself in the movie.
My father shared with me that he and his fellows had spent a day unloading at a dock and moving goods to storage. The dock had a cased torpedo just setting on it in the way with people and machinery bumping into it. That night when no one was there it went "boom". No one was injured but I don't think his confidence in torpedoes was ever the same.
Point on the aerodynamics question - I remember reading that on later (at least British) capital ships, there was a fair bit of aerodynamic testing that went on - not so much to reduce drag, but to affect how the funnel smoke is dissipated. Bridge structures were designed specifically to channel air and create updrafts to keep the smoke from clouding the bridge and spotting position. This also affected the design and height of funnels.
JoDonHo - A German Type-7 was repeatedly rolled over to 60-70° during a really bad storm in 1942-43. It’s one of the few times the watch crew was brought inside the sub.
Only at significant depth though. Subs in shallow coastal waters such as the north and baltic sea will roll a lot in stormy weather even when submerged.
With regards to ship aerodynamics I believe that considerable attention was paid not to reduction of drag but to flow effects. Especially in coal burning days the effect of the flow of smoke out of stacks was important. Later the air flows on the decks of aircraft carriers became important.
On the Jutland wrecks, see Innes McCartney's "Jutland 1916: The Archaeology of A Naval Battlefield." The wreck of HMS Indefatigable is a mess, suffering at least two magazines explosions (X turret magazine first, then A turret magazine as the ship was already sinking). In addition, the site has been subject to illegal commercial salvage operations. There's no way to discern from the wreck whether it was a straight magazine penetration by a 11" shell or flash passing down to the magazine.
There is a scene in Sink The Bismarck which always stuck with me as and example of the horror of battle. While Bismarck is being blown to pieces, a German sailor is running through the shot. There is the flash of a shell hit that fills the screen, and when it's gone, so is the man. Only a dark splatter on the bulkhead he was standing in front of.
About movies which realistically portray naval combat, I thought the 2005 Japanese movie Yamato did a pretty good job; especially in the way the anti-aircraft gun crews were shown being torn apart by machine and cannon fire from attacking American planes. Because the movie centered around several ordinary crew members of the Yamato, it made the suffering of these people more significant. One minor complaint is the Yamato manages to shoot down far more attacking planes than occurred in real life. Also, the struggles of the escort ships and their crews are pretty much non-existent. It reminded me of a hare-brained scheme someone in Japan once put forth about the possibility of raising the wreckage of the Yamoto in order to give it's entombed sailors proper burials. Nothing was said about the 800 - 900 sailors who went down on the escort ships which were also sunk in Operation Ten-Go. "Sorry, you didn't die on a famous ship, so we're just going to forget about you." Those caveats aside, overall it was pretty well done and is worth a viewing.
I think the IJN posed the main strategic threat during 1942 because of the actual and potential conquests they achieved. The Allied colonies they took were rich in oil, rubber, tungsten and tin. Rubber was a particularly bad choke point since there weren’t that many other places it could be grown in great quantity. Ceylon became the main rubber supplier for the Allies, but again, the IJN remained a major strategic threat to that island. If the IJN had supported invasions of Ceylon and possibly Madagascar and Socotra, not only would the main Allied rubber supplier be lost but the ring around India’s neck would also be very tight. This threat coupled with the insurrections in the subcontinent would have been very difficult to overcome.
Any attack on Madagascar would have to be a raid. Japan could never support an occupation of the island. They completely and utterly lacked the logistical capability to keep troops on the island. They could raid it, loot it, and leave it a burned out cinder, making it a strategic victory, maybe. The timing on that would be difficult and strategically painful though.
When the Japanese were wrapping up their initial conquests and planning future operations, they did consider a move back to the Indian Ocean.The Imperial Army, firmly committed on mainland China was not buying it. The Burma Campaign was proving more difficult due to lack of transportation (hence building the bridge over the river Kwai) and very cautious about getting into anything that looked like an open-ended manpower sump. Also, as noted by Timberwolf, Japan didn't have the logistical capability to supply garrisons that far away. All this speculation is rendered moot because of the camping trip Oppenheimer and many of the world's top physicists were having in New Mexico.
@@sundiver137 Agreed, there is no way that the Axis could have won World War II if the Allies were determined to win it, and an occupation of even northern Madagascar would have been a long shot but I think an invasion of Ceylon might have been feasible and this alone would have caused major trouble for the Allies. Again, my assertion was about the relative threat posed by the three main Axis navies, not an argument that they could have won the war.
To quote Halsey (In the New Jersey during Hurricaine Cobra) “No one who has not been through a typhoon can conceive its fury. The 70-foot seas smash you from all sides. The rain and the scud are blinding; they drive you flat-out, until you can’t tell the ocean from the air…. At broad noon, I couldn’t see the bow of my ship, 350 feet from the bridge…. This typhoon tossed our enormous ship as if she were a canoe…. We ourselves were buffeted from one bulkhead to another; we could not hear our own voices above the uproar.” Interestingly the escort carriers, built on hulls of merchant ships, did much better than the Independence class fleet carriers, build on cruiser hulls. Tabberer (DE-418) was a hero, in the same typhoon despite taking 60 degree rolls and having part of her mast washed away she rescued 55 survivours (including at night) from other destroyers that had been sunk and persisted doing this despite orders to leave and regroup (Admiral Halsey being unaware ships had sunk).
USN weapon problem; there was the faulty torpedo battery that had a habit shorting out, turning the torpedo on in the '60s that most likely resulted in the sinking of the USS Scorpion and the spontaneously combustion ordinance that resulted in the USS Forrestal fire. Though I gather those were the result of manufacturing quality issues rather than faulty designs.
Movies/segments that occured to me: Mission of the Shark- sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the mini-series War and Remembrance had some good naval segments, and always loved The Sand Pebbles about patrolling the Yangtze river in the interwar period
When you talk about gunnery improvements, don't forget Percy Scott, who was Sims' mentor. Edward Beech describes the importance of their collaboration in his The History oif the Uniuted States Navy, also a good narrative otherwise.
Drach, you may have missed the trees for the forest on the Axis navies. There would not have even been a Pacific War, had it not been for Japan’s Navy. Moreover, numbers of hulls and distances in the theater were much longer than the North Atlantic or Mediterranean, so power projection was greater than both Italy and Germany combined. Regarding a need to arms race tactical weapons in order to overcome a Navy, what about all the American work on torpedos and the carrier-based Corsair planes? There is also the atomic bomb, although that was not a naval weapon.
Saw a frigate do that dd trick, once. Doing an UNREP, during heavy weather. Had white water over the bridge. 5 guys on the bow, on the way down, 4 on the way up. Nice SCP outro.
I was coming across sea from Holland to England and we got hit by a gale, we got caught in a side on the amount of people who were on the floor and rather scared was rather high, and it was a very very scary sight to look out the windows of port and starboard and see nothing but waves. Me and my dad were the only people to eat other than crew on the trip, so got a bumper load of food for free which was nice. But you really appreciate the fact that a Navy is always in danger not just from guns but also nature it's self and realistically the Sea is the real killer of a sailor or ship enemy guns or torpedos are just the icing needed to cause nature to reclaim you.
I love your videos bro. That being said, the intro is so loud that I have to turn down the volume to 1/4 so I don't wake up my kid, then when you start talking I have to crank up all the way up just to hear you.
You forgot one thing... the very presence of torpedoes on your ships FORCES the opponent to maneuver to avoid them whether or not they are actually used. This in turn screws up their ability to range and shoot at you as accurately or alter the range to their preference as effectively. This is in addition to you forcing the opponent to waste displacement and fatten their ships with passive anti-torpedo defense.
27:00 there was that minor invasion of the Aleutian Islands by the Japanese at the same time as midway, which is part of the state of Alaska (then the territory of Alaska). So technically, Japan did invade the US and is the only other independent country to do so other than the British.
Well, yes and no. The thing is that they invaded US overseas territories and not US mainland territories. When Drach mentioned the low possibility of a japanese invasion of the West Coast, the coastline in question involves the states of Washington, Oregon (iirc) and California. Now, if you could come up with a plan as to how the japanese were to transport the several dozen divisions they would need across the entire Pacific with their escorts, avoiding every single US ship and aircraft on patrol, to reach the beaches and land successfully, somehow not get obbliterated by the ships inevitably closing in on them from San Diego, then somehow secure a proper supply line from Japan to the US and then slowly march across the entire width of the american continent as they fight the US and Canadian armies by that point, most probably needing to go all the way to Washington D.C. just to capitulate the US and possibly later Canada, we would be thankful. Do also consider the fact that by that point, the IJA is quite busy in China, the Dutch East Indies, Malaya and so on and the fact that the number of troop tansports and even cargo ships they have are woefully low for such a large task, while so many other things are going on in other theatres. There are also other aspects that I didn't list yet, since I believe this comment is already more than long enough and can't remember off the top of my head. Have a nice day if you read this comment all the way until then end. :D
@Drachinifel there's a movie titled "Pentagon Wars" that's worth watching for a satirical look at more recent US military weapon programs, based more or less on the development of the US Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle. As for current state of affairs, I point you to the debacle that is the F-35...
Oh wow, I got my question in. Today would be a great day =D sorry for the name, back those days when I was setting up dummy account for things and ended up using it exclusively today,
that kind of reminded me of the USS Franklin video where you mentioned someone with balls of steel defusing red hot bombs on the deck. must be an experience if I am receiving the order to move a 30 pound dud off the ship
@@zumkzwxwq Yes, but think about the same order to move something larger, requiring two or more other gents helping. You not only have to worry about yourself making a misstep, but one of them as well. Almost enough to give one an anxiety attack thinking about it, lol.
Your comments about it being a pity that a particulary IJN submarine captain guilty of atrocities didn't get hanged for his crimes reminded me of a remark a friend once made about certain especially sadistic criminals. He said he's against the death penalty, because compared to life in prison with no hope of getting out, death seems too much like an easy way out.
Ahh. I had guessed (wrongly) that the Treaty Cruiser competition had been covered in the admin section of the earlier drydock that was just dead air (silence) for the first few minutes. I look forward to hearing the results.
Great job as always. I asked you on the Leander video a question I'll bring it up again here. How did the Interwar Treaties work with countries like Canada, New Zealand, Australia? If a ship was with each of those navies, did the treaty consider them "independent"? Or were they considered Dominions/possessions or part of the British Empire and counted with the UK limit?
Drach: retired old school USN O-6 here. In answer to your question- F-35; LCS; components of the Ford class, such as catapults, arresting gear and weapons elevators
Hey drach, just a suggestion: if you paid for those hotels with a credit card, you can always do a chargeback to get your credit card (or debit card if used as credit, I think) company to forcibly take the money back if they didn't deliver the services. I'm sure that's not just a USA thing.
Regarding BuORD/BuAER and follow-ons and questionable kit: DASH, sticking with Westinghouse jet engines, F3H Demon, F7U Gutless, SUBROC, Typhon (admittedly well ahead of its time), serious reliability problems with all early SAMs and AAMs, the 2.75" FFAR (dozens fired at a drone F6F failed to land a single hit), more recently LCS, CG-21, DD-21, EMALS, the entire Ford class design is pretty much a schoolhouse on how to wreck 50 years of incremental design refinement in a single blow......ridiculously underfunding naval air and retiring almost new or massively upgraded surface vessels (that in several key ways outpeyardsrformed their replacements), while continuing to build scores of billion dollar surface ships, most of which have never fired a shot in anger in spite of 20 years of continuous warfare. You might get the idea I'm very down on how the post-Cold War USN. You might be right.
Nobody knows how modern torpedoes will actually perform because only a few have ever been shot in anger and they didn't work because the Argentines didn't connect the wire guidance correctly. We do more live fire but there is nothing like wartime conditions to expose design and/or manufacturing flaws. My uncle served on the USS Oakland (CL-95). They got hit by a dud aerial torpedo in the area of the forward magazine. The ordinance ratings managed to disarm the torpedo, or at least they think they were successful, and with damage control teams waiting shoved it out into the sea.
It's worth noting however that there have been a fair number of SINKEX where there has been missile, bomb, torpedo and occasionally naval gunfire (even some very modern ones involving land launched artillery missiles fired at the target ship). In all of the ones I've been able to find records of it was the (saved for last of course) torpedo hit that actually sinks the target. Some of these targets survive multiple hours of bombardment with no damage control efforts at all, with modern weapons on world war 2 or early cold war era ships even. There has even been one instance in which an oil tanker needed to be scuttled and due to fires set to mitigate the oil spill danger there was no way to get anyone onboard to scuttle the ship. A destroyer fired nearly seventy 5" shells into the tanker at the waterline with no effect. The USS Bremerton then was asked to fire a torpedo into the tanker, which then immediately rolled and sank.
@@Stlaind The Torpedoes used in a SINKEX all get special treatment even if it is a random selection. The crew knows what is going to happen so they make sure to do all the maintenance. Naval weapons are better tested now than ever before but nothing real combat to find out if they actually work as advertised.
I have watched and listened to a lot of the 'Drydock' series, and on the whole they are not too Brit oriented and biased. This has been nice, but the answer to 'What film made post WW2 do you think has the most realistic portrayal of naval combat?' appears to be quite slanted. 'The Sinking of the Bismark' has very little action in it, and is more about everyone on land running about in a panic. So, if this is the criteria for an accurate WW II naval war movie, then 'In Harm's Way' (1965) has a lot more detail and 'action' of this type, as well as a lot more actual naval war action as well. Here are 2 movies that are at least the equal, or arguably surpass 'Das Boot' in depicting accurate/realistic naval submarine warfare: 'The Enemy Below (1957), and 'U-571' (2000). The movie 'Pearl Harbor' (2001) has a lot of a love story in it (typical Hollywood), but the scenes on the actual Japanese attack, and later the Doolittle Raid off the carrier Hornet are quite accurate and very realistic as well.
Drach the biggest risk of to a US DDG and CG class ships in storms is the very real risk of ripping the sonar dome off. If that happens the damage to the bow forces the ship to move no faster than 5 knots. I'm sure I don't need to point out the other issues that would cause a ship in a heavy storm
Me: I'm just going to watch a few questions for 15-20 minutes Me now: Okay, so I've watched almost all of the video over an hour. I have no impulse control
Re: 00:49:21 When did naval vessels become weather-proof, if ever? Here is USS Independence (CV-62) trying to be a sub in 1977 (and washing most of the airwing in saltwater): www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cv62-77/013.htm
48:40 Devils Advocate while I disagree with what the Japanese submarine captain did then the same rationale can be applied to the Allies of that in the Laconia incident and also the Allies significantly disrupting Luftwaffe rescue efforts in the English Channel of shot down airmen. Someone who you don't capture is someone who can come back and fight again. Lòoked at it this way then the actions could make sense.
Note on "Das Boot": the German "Boot" is pronounced about the same way as English "boat". When you pronounce it like the English "boot", it becomes an Oktoberfest beer challenge instead. ;)
There is non more shameless than an anti aircraft missile or torpedo manufacturer. Various US, UK and German torpedoes just didn't work early in ww2. The performance of rapier during the Falklands war was disgraceful and as far as I can tell the tigerfish was so useless that no one bothered to use it.
I was under the impression that nuclear subs were pretty much weatherproof anywhere they could dive. Weather is almost by definition up on the surface.
I'm not sure what to say about the trip. In MA we're taking things slowly, but it's could all go kerploie at a moment's notice if the disease numbers spike. I would also be careful about making travel plans while the political situation is so unstable; it's unlikely to result in anything but you might suddenly find yourself locked out if the protests are crazy.
You need to make a "With the Best Will in the World" shirt with a particular vicious battleship picture of Vanguard on it. It's such a wonderfully British phrase.
Strategically speaking, nothing the Axis powers could do was ever going to bring about a naval victory. The details were of course very significant to the people directly involved with any given campaign, and a matter of life and death; but the naval details were never going to change the outcome of the war, because none of the Axis powers had anywhere near the industrial capacity or the shipyards to keep up with the Allies' ability to just launch more warships. If the Axis had managed to build better ships and made better use of them, they still would've lost the naval war, especially once America became involved. Call it a "zerg rush" if you will. When the enemy can launch five new capital ships for every one you can launch, and can keep doing that indefinitely, the details can play out in a lot of ways, but they all have one thing in common: you lose. If the Axis was going to win, they were going to have to win on land, or in the air. They could not win a naval victory. They were never going to have enough ships for it. I mean, you can cite Admiral Yi, naval superhero, and claim that the number of ships isn't important if you have sufficiently amazing leadership. But comparing the Allied navies of WWII to the Japanese invasion force that Yi faced, doesn't hold up when you look at it too closely. The situation is not the same. If you'd given Yi command of the Axis navies, he might have been creative enough to pull off some impressive tactical victories, but he could not have changed the outcome of the war. No, the threat that the Axis navies posed to the Allies, was a non-war-outcome-altering threat. Certainly, they could cost allied navies (and in some cases other forces that the navies were supporting) a lot of ships and lives and resources and so forth.
Can anyone give me the time stamp and episode of dry dock in which reach had a very funny story of weird and funny ship names? I want to rewatch that but I can’t find it anywhere...
Pinned post for Q&A :)
is design 16E-38 a worthwhile investment ?
What was the purpose of the large clock faces on the aft masts of WWII era ships? All the images I've seen of them the faces only go to nine or ten o'clock and many can't be seen from inside the gun turrets. What were they?
@@havokvladimirovichstalinov range clock
Can we get an episode on the "Scrap Iron Flotilla", that would be tops!.........attempt No 8 ;)
If the Kaiser had never fired Bismarck and subsequently not started a naval arms race with Great Britain, does the Royal Navy expand as much as it did? Would they see France/US as their eventual enemy instead of Germany? Maybe a UK/German/Austro-Hungarian alliance in the eventual first World War, depending how Russia and Austria-Hungarians handle the Serbian question.
A very unofficial comment by Admiral King regarding how the Bureau of Ordinance was progressing on the Mk 14 torpedo problems- "I've seen better organized monkey shlt fights at the zoo.."
but when you give all those poo flinging monkeys typewriters, you may just get the next great American novel..
@@ditzydoo4378 or type writer parts fights.
That's as good as one I heard a CPO emit: looks like a buncha monkeys trying to f*%k a football.
@@ditzydoo4378 Or star wars script.
@@benjaminstout941 This XD
The last time I was this early the Bureau of Ordinance was proud of the MK 14 torpedo..
Darrell Smith the MK14 is the best torpedo ever! Don’t ever question its deadliness! - Your friends at the Bureau of Ordinance.
Wait, when did they stop being proud of the mk14?
I've read a book called White Coolies by Australian Army nurse Betty Jeffrey about the experiences of her and her fellow nurses and their terrible treatment after their hospital ship was sunk during the evacuation of Singapore in 1942. AHS Centaur wasn't the only hospital ship put down by the Japanese. It's well worth a read.
Sink the Bismarck is an epic film and the only flaw is the portrayal of Lutjens as a rabid Nazi, which he certainly wasn't. I shudder to think of the mess it would be if remade today.
A remake of Sink the Bismarck could be good in the right hands, but I think the odds are it would be dreck. I agree with you regarding Lutjens' portrayal in the movie. When Hitler visited Bismarck Lutjens didn't give him the Nazi salute, he used the old Naval salute.
Yes, Japanese respect for hospital ships was patchy at best; see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Op_Ten_Noort
Drach may you have a long and happy life. I was feeling a bit low and you dropped this. Instant mood lifter
Sink the Beysmarck (by Michael Bey). The Bismarck is sunk by the USS Iowa and New Jersey after being disabled by an F14 alpha strike by Adm Nimitz (the man not the ship).
sounds about right
Paul Pomykala FTW!
The Final Countdown would like to have a few words with you about that...
@@Isolder74 Except, they didn't finish what they started!
"Monkey Brand" Stephenson, the Terror of Tobermory, boarded a ship under training, seized his hat and thrw it on the deck "Unexploded bomb" he roared "deal with it". One of the crew promptly kicked it overboard. "Well done!" he roared , then pointing to his hat in the oggin "Man overboard. He can't swim - save him!"
To which the apocryphal respose from the AB was, "Can't swim Sir, nobody ever bothers to learn in Stornaway." followed by an aside to his 'oppo' (whilst pointing at the hat) "Nobby. Do you want a medal?"
That's funny, but if a man goes overboard, jumping in after him is probably a bad idea, for a number of reasons.
Yes I have read that story and it sounds like Stephenson was a real character ! I believe there are a number of anecdotes surrounding the man.
@@RCAvhstape Yeah, I gather the appropriate response would be to throw the hat a life buoy.
As for "the most realistic portrayal of naval combat", I've understood that "Master & Commander", despite being fictitious (with Thomas Cochrane being one source of inspiration) is very good at depicting naval warfare, during the age of sail.
There are many films on the age of sail. That is just the latest.
Captain: Dive! Dive! Dive!
Helmsmen: Sir, we are a destroyer...
Captain: I said D I V E
*looks at Uashavoh*
Regarding torpedoes, it's worth mentioning the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. Torpedoes were expected to play a major role and they proved to be largely ineffective in battles (though useful for finishing off crippled ships). This war also showed that gunfire was effective at 2-3 times longer ranges than expected (and well outside the range of torpedoes). Mines, however, were far more effective than expected.
Special about carriers vs pirates? Yes please! 😃
The Centaur was a Blue Funnel passenger ship converted to a Hospital ship. The wreck was located in December 2009 by David Mearns who also located the wrecks of the HMS Hood, HMAS Sydney, Musashi, Derbyshire and many more. The Centaur had in 1941 been the first vessel to pick up survivors from the Kormorant.
You should do a show on ADM Ernest King. He's colorful.
Yes, this. Please.
Given that demented little giggle he gave out when speaking about King, I fully support this.
Admiral King was a very even tempered man, always angry.
It could be part of a video on Operation Drumbeat, Dönitz's u-boat assault on America.
23:06 I'd argue that, given the time element of the question the Japanese also suffer in the sense that the big Kido Butai loses 2/3 of its strength six months after starting the war. Therefore, the strategic threat presented by the Japanese navy doesn't last nearly as long as that presented by the Italian fleet.
The best thing about Sunday mornings! The amount of actual information and details is astonishing. Amazing work.
Wow! The questions now appear a the bottom of the video screen with the time stamp - a pretty awesome new feature! (with timeline segmentation for all the other questions!)
I would find a video on Eagle's anti-pirate activities in China fascinating.
"Hermes was one of the 12 Olympian Gods and was god of trade, thieves, travelers, sports, athletes, and border crossings" Couldn't have picked a much better name for a pirate hunting warship with an air wing. (I'm guessing they enjoyed sports on the off days)
Hunting pirates IS good sport.
One other item to consider with superstructure aerodynamics is the locations of the funnels and the effect on the mainmast. For example the mainmast on HMS Dreadnought was abaft the forward funnel. Between the heat and exhaust gases made the foretop difficult to operate.
Sink the Bismark - my brother and I would get up and watch it anytime it was scheduled. Almost always in the 02:00 time slot on US TV. Loved Kenneth More in "A Night To Remember," also.
I'll have to see if I can punch Sink the Bismarck up on the youtubes this afternoon. Been a long time since I've watched. Good way to kill the afternoon as tropical weather rolls past.
This is one of the few things I look forward to during the week drach minus talking & catching up with a couple of my close friends so thanks from the bottom of my heart mate.
Regarding Russian Battleships: I recall reading somewhere that Russian industry during WWII was only able to produce armor plates up to about 9” in thickness. As you say I suppose they could have layered multiple plates together or perhaps used some sort of spaced armor scheme.
There is a great clip on massive wave hitting the bow of the USS Kitty Hawk. The wave almost tops the flight deck. It's worth a watch.
Sadly, postponing your USA trip until next year is probably the best idea. You heading for Europe and the less well-known vessels would be awesome.
With the general "climate" here, and the election cycle kicking in , sorry to have to second that opinion.
50:00 slamming a destroyer into the wake of an aircraft carrier, while everybody watches. It was a nice day, and there was nothing else to do.
I have to wonder what a crowd of civilians is doing on a carrier, or at least a crowd of people in civilian clothing.
@@SynchroScore that is the deck crew. They are a colorful bunch and the different colors represent what they do. Plane captains, ordinance, fueler, etc. And probably a few off duty personnel as well.
@@hokutoulrik7345 I know about the rainbow uniforms for flight deck crews, I just didn't expect to see off-duty personnel standing around in khaki shorts or t-shirts. Then again, I'm not that familiar with shipboard dress code.
The Mark 14 torpedo is a monument to incompetence.
And/or arrogance.
@@cvproj The two go hand in hand.
Corruption. Follow the money.
Designed by the Japanese Navy for the Americans.
No one can beat early tigerfish
As for ships in severe weather on of the more memorable days from my time in the U.S. Navy was when my Charles F Adams class destroyer was in 30 foot seas.
Speaking of torpedoes, the torpedo(in all it's forms - ship launched, submarine launched and air launched) sank more capital ships and aircraft carriers than shell fire. Early on the gun was supposed to incapacitate the enemy ship and the FAR more lethal torpedo was to be used to "clean up the battle space" and sink disabled enemy ships (one of the major reasons capital ships continued to be fitted with torpedo tubes). For instance, the US aerial torpedo in it's final form (1944 and later) achieved a 40% hit rate and were the primary weapons responsible for the sinking of Yamato and Musashi, as a for instance.
I always thought that the movie "The Cruel Sea" was a very good portrail of the battle of the Atlantic. Oh and many thanks for another fantastic episode of Drydock!
Yes. Everyone signs up to be Duke of York or Washington, not Scharnhorst or Kirishima. In Harms Way has a final battle sequence that I always found interesting, albeit incredibly distracting when the glaringly obvious models are floating in a pool or being blown up.
23:06 Let's define our terms. Did WWII start with the invasion of Manchuria, the invasion of Ethiopia, the invasion of Poland, or any other invasion or war going on at the time (Hungary and Romania, Finland and USSR, etc.)? The "official" start of WWII by Western historians was September 1939. The Chinese do not agree.
Princeofcups Poc The Spanish might also have some thoughts on the matter...
3 September 1939. That is the point at which it became a "World War" rather than just a local conflict. Anyone who disagrees is wrong.
@@grahamstrouse1165 Not really, the Spanish Civil War is considered as a prelude to the World War and not a part of it by both historians and the general public
@@jrd33 It wasn't even a general European War at that point.
The real answer is 1937 when Japan began its conquest of China.
@@johnshepherd8687 Japan and China were not world powers in 1937.
I usually am making dinner after work to your fantastic content. That admiral King bit and the deep sea diving Burke created a real mess lol, totally worth it I might add XD
18:55
Oh god no Wargaming look away. No no no this is real life content please don't look this part of the video... I SAID N-
ah god their ego is hurted. They'll have to add soviet nuclear submarine to compensate the hard truth of historical facts... GG Drach!
Oh, well, they could add Austro-Hungarian Tier 10 carriers by this amount of speculation.
I mean to be fair a lot of the Soviet BB in game doesn’t have that good of a belt. The trouble is their stupid bow and deck armour
Wargaming by 23:05:
ruclips.net/video/31g0YE61PLQ/видео.html
Perfect! Just as I was running out of things to watch.
I knew there was a reason to love the Kriegsmarine besides the snazzy uniforms. Courtmarshalling and arresting incompetent development officers is almost unheard of.
Admiral Ernest King was remarkably even tempered. He had one mood. He was always angry. And that was according to his daughter
extra brownie points for "Sink the Bismark"
for having Esmond Knight playing Captain Leach
(and Dana Winter )
He lost an eye in the genuine action.
Battle of the River Plate
@@vespelian5274 Not the only actor to portray a character in a war film in which he had some experience. British actor Richard Todd played Maj John Howard in the Longest Day. He served under Howard at Pegesas Bridge. There is a scene where a soldier reports to Maj Howard. In the real battle it was Richard Todd so you could say he reported to himself in the movie.
@@vespelian5274 Exactly
Wynter.
My father shared with me that he and his fellows had spent a day unloading at a dock and moving goods to storage. The dock had a cased torpedo just setting on it in the way with people and machinery bumping into it. That night when no one was there it went "boom". No one was injured but I don't think his confidence in torpedoes was ever the same.
Point on the aerodynamics question - I remember reading that on later (at least British) capital ships, there was a fair bit of aerodynamic testing that went on - not so much to reduce drag, but to affect how the funnel smoke is dissipated. Bridge structures were designed specifically to channel air and create updrafts to keep the smoke from clouding the bridge and spotting position. This also affected the design and height of funnels.
No ship is immune to the weather. Submarines are pretty close.
Avoid Bermuda triangle
@@janwitts2688 This
JoDonHo - A German Type-7 was repeatedly rolled over to 60-70° during a really bad storm in 1942-43. It’s one of the few times the watch crew was brought inside the sub.
Only at significant depth though. Subs in shallow coastal waters such as the north and baltic sea will roll a lot in stormy weather even when submerged.
59:44 No mention of Master and Commander? Ben Hur? Perhaps even Michiel de Ruyter?
33:42 Everyone had to remember, It was KING'S NAVY, Roosevelt just BORROWED it when needed, but it ALWAYS was King's Navy, PERIOD!
With regards to ship aerodynamics I believe that considerable attention was paid not to reduction of drag but to flow effects. Especially in coal burning days the effect of the flow of smoke out of stacks was important. Later the air flows on the decks of aircraft carriers became important.
On the Jutland wrecks, see Innes McCartney's "Jutland 1916: The Archaeology of A Naval Battlefield." The wreck of HMS Indefatigable is a mess, suffering at least two magazines explosions (X turret magazine first, then A turret magazine as the ship was already sinking). In addition, the site has been subject to illegal commercial salvage operations. There's no way to discern from the wreck whether it was a straight magazine penetration by a 11" shell or flash passing down to the magazine.
The introduction jingle is great!!
There is a scene in Sink The Bismarck which always stuck with me as and example of the horror of battle. While Bismarck is being blown to pieces, a German sailor is running through the shot. There is the flash of a shell hit that fills the screen, and when it's gone, so is the man. Only a dark splatter on the bulkhead he was standing in front of.
Great episode- thank you👍
Eagle and Hermes Pirate Hunting video sounds awesome!
54:12 There *is* a demotivator version of that photo. "OOD: Dive! Dive! Dive! Helmsman: Sir, we're a destroyer. OOD: I said dive!"
About movies which realistically portray naval combat, I thought the 2005 Japanese movie Yamato did a pretty good job; especially in the way the anti-aircraft gun crews were shown being torn apart by machine and cannon fire from attacking American planes. Because the movie centered around several ordinary crew members of the Yamato, it made the suffering of these people more significant.
One minor complaint is the Yamato manages to shoot down far more attacking planes than occurred in real life. Also, the struggles of the escort ships and their crews are pretty much non-existent. It reminded me of a hare-brained scheme someone in Japan once put forth about the possibility of raising the wreckage of the Yamoto in order to give it's entombed sailors proper burials. Nothing was said about the 800 - 900 sailors who went down on the escort ships which were also sunk in Operation Ten-Go. "Sorry, you didn't die on a famous ship, so we're just going to forget about you." Those caveats aside, overall it was pretty well done and is worth a viewing.
I think the IJN posed the main strategic threat during 1942 because of the actual and potential conquests they achieved. The Allied colonies they took were rich in oil, rubber, tungsten and tin. Rubber was a particularly bad choke point since there weren’t that many other places it could be grown in great quantity. Ceylon became the main rubber supplier for the Allies, but again, the IJN remained a major strategic threat to that island. If the IJN had supported invasions of Ceylon and possibly Madagascar and Socotra, not only would the main Allied rubber supplier be lost but the ring around India’s neck would also be very tight. This threat coupled with the insurrections in the subcontinent would have been very difficult to overcome.
Any attack on Madagascar would have to be a raid. Japan could never support an occupation of the island. They completely and utterly lacked the logistical capability to keep troops on the island. They could raid it, loot it, and leave it a burned out cinder, making it a strategic victory, maybe. The timing on that would be difficult and strategically painful though.
When the Japanese were wrapping up their initial conquests and planning future operations, they did consider a move back to the Indian Ocean.The Imperial Army, firmly committed on mainland China was not buying it. The Burma Campaign was proving more difficult due to lack of transportation (hence building the bridge over the river Kwai) and very cautious about getting into anything that looked like an open-ended manpower sump. Also, as noted by Timberwolf, Japan didn't have the logistical capability to supply garrisons that far away. All this speculation is rendered moot because of the camping trip Oppenheimer and many of the world's top physicists were having in New Mexico.
@@sundiver137 Agreed, there is no way that the Axis could have won World War II if the Allies were determined to win it, and an occupation of even northern Madagascar would have been a long shot but I think an invasion of Ceylon might have been feasible and this alone would have caused major trouble for the Allies. Again, my assertion was about the relative threat posed by the three main Axis navies, not an argument that they could have won the war.
To quote Halsey (In the New Jersey during Hurricaine Cobra) “No one who has not been through a typhoon can conceive its fury. The 70-foot seas smash you from all sides. The rain and the scud are blinding; they drive you flat-out, until you can’t tell the ocean from the air…. At broad noon, I couldn’t see the bow of my ship, 350 feet from the bridge…. This typhoon tossed our enormous ship as if she were a canoe…. We ourselves were buffeted from one bulkhead to another; we could not hear our own voices above the uproar.” Interestingly the escort carriers, built on hulls of merchant ships, did much better than the Independence class fleet carriers, build on cruiser hulls. Tabberer (DE-418) was a hero, in the same typhoon despite taking 60 degree rolls and having part of her mast washed away she rescued 55 survivours (including at night) from other destroyers that had been sunk and persisted doing this despite orders to leave and regroup (Admiral Halsey being unaware ships had sunk).
USN weapon problem; there was the faulty torpedo battery that had a habit shorting out, turning the torpedo on in the '60s that most likely resulted in the sinking of the USS Scorpion and the spontaneously combustion ordinance that resulted in the USS Forrestal fire. Though I gather those were the result of manufacturing quality issues rather than faulty designs.
Would really like to see the video of the Royal Navy piracy suppression operations in the inter war period!
For a navy war movie Enemy Below is a good one about escorts hunting subs.
Movies/segments that occured to me: Mission of the Shark- sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the mini-series War and Remembrance had some good naval segments, and always loved The Sand Pebbles about patrolling the Yangtze river in the interwar period
The Cruel Sea is another excellent film on that subject.
When you talk about gunnery improvements, don't forget Percy Scott, who was Sims' mentor. Edward Beech describes the importance of their collaboration in his The History oif the Uniuted States Navy, also a good narrative otherwise.
Drach, you may have missed the trees for the forest on the Axis navies. There would not have even been a Pacific War, had it not been for Japan’s Navy. Moreover, numbers of hulls and distances in the theater were much longer than the North Atlantic or Mediterranean, so power projection was greater than both Italy and Germany combined. Regarding a need to arms race tactical weapons in order to overcome a Navy, what about all the American work on torpedos and the carrier-based Corsair planes? There is also the atomic bomb, although that was not a naval weapon.
Saw a frigate do that dd trick, once. Doing an UNREP, during heavy weather. Had white water over the bridge. 5 guys on the bow, on the way down, 4 on the way up. Nice SCP outro.
The Italian Navy 'taking a bit of an early retirement'.
I was coming across sea from Holland to England and we got hit by a gale, we got caught in a side on the amount of people who were on the floor and rather scared was rather high, and it was a very very scary sight to look out the windows of port and starboard and see nothing but waves. Me and my dad were the only people to eat other than crew on the trip, so got a bumper load of food for free which was nice. But you really appreciate the fact that a Navy is always in danger not just from guns but also nature it's self and realistically the Sea is the real killer of a sailor or ship enemy guns or torpedos are just the icing needed to cause nature to reclaim you.
I love your videos bro. That being said, the intro is so loud that I have to turn down the volume to 1/4 so I don't wake up my kid, then when you start talking I have to crank up all the way up just to hear you.
Will the Drydock 100 Special be a 24 hour mega fest... which may be five minutes or less?
You forgot one thing... the very presence of torpedoes on your ships FORCES the opponent to maneuver to avoid them whether or not they are actually used. This in turn screws up their ability to range and shoot at you as accurately or alter the range to their preference as effectively. This is in addition to you forcing the opponent to waste displacement and fatten their ships with passive anti-torpedo defense.
that new progress bar is quite handy
27:00 there was that minor invasion of the Aleutian Islands by the Japanese at the same time as midway, which is part of the state of Alaska (then the territory of Alaska). So technically, Japan did invade the US and is the only other independent country to do so other than the British.
The Philippines had the same status as Hawaii, Alaska, and other US Territories. The Japanese had invaded the US long before their Aleutian campaign.
@@Thirdbase9 Exactly..... Guam, The P.I., Wake..... All American soil.
Well, yes and no. The thing is that they invaded US overseas territories and not US mainland territories. When Drach mentioned the low possibility of a japanese invasion of the West Coast, the coastline in question involves the states of Washington, Oregon (iirc) and California. Now, if you could come up with a plan as to how the japanese were to transport the several dozen divisions they would need across the entire Pacific with their escorts, avoiding every single US ship and aircraft on patrol, to reach the beaches and land successfully, somehow not get obbliterated by the ships inevitably closing in on them from San Diego, then somehow secure a proper supply line from Japan to the US and then slowly march across the entire width of the american continent as they fight the US and Canadian armies by that point, most probably needing to go all the way to Washington D.C. just to capitulate the US and possibly later Canada, we would be thankful. Do also consider the fact that by that point, the IJA is quite busy in China, the Dutch East Indies, Malaya and so on and the fact that the number of troop tansports and even cargo ships they have are woefully low for such a large task, while so many other things are going on in other theatres. There are also other aspects that I didn't list yet, since I believe this comment is already more than long enough and can't remember off the top of my head.
Have a nice day if you read this comment all the way until then end. :D
@Drachinifel there's a movie titled "Pentagon Wars" that's worth watching for a satirical look at more recent US military weapon programs, based more or less on the development of the US Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
As for current state of affairs, I point you to the debacle that is the F-35...
Oh wow, I got my question in. Today would be a great day =D
sorry for the name, back those days when I was setting up dummy account for things and ended up using it exclusively today,
that kind of reminded me of the USS Franklin video where you mentioned someone with balls of steel defusing red hot bombs on the deck. must be an experience if I am receiving the order to move a 30 pound dud off the ship
@@zumkzwxwq Yes, but think about the same order to move something larger, requiring two or more other gents helping. You not only have to worry about yourself making a misstep, but one of them as well. Almost enough to give one an anxiety attack thinking about it, lol.
I think the Yamato movie from 2005 is pretty good in showing how sinking ship looks like.
Your comments about it being a pity that a particulary IJN submarine captain guilty of atrocities didn't get hanged for his crimes reminded me of a remark a friend once made about certain especially sadistic criminals. He said he's against the death penalty, because compared to life in prison with no hope of getting out, death seems too much like an easy way out.
Ahh. I had guessed (wrongly) that the Treaty Cruiser competition had been covered in the admin section of the earlier drydock that was just dead air (silence) for the first few minutes. I look forward to hearing the results.
So in one episode we've had HMS Hermes hunting the Black Pearl and then an Arleigh Burke doing it's best imitation of Davy Jones's Flying Dutchman....
Why did wet casement guns persist for so long?
Great job as always. I asked you on the Leander video a question I'll bring it up again here. How did the Interwar Treaties work with countries like Canada, New Zealand, Australia? If a ship was with each of those navies, did the treaty consider them "independent"? Or were they considered Dominions/possessions or part of the British Empire and counted with the UK limit?
At a capital ship level at least they were counted against the Royal Navy limits due to the way the Washington Treaty had been negotiated.
Capital ships being Cruisers and above?
Drach: retired old school USN O-6 here. In answer to your question- F-35; LCS; components of the Ford class, such as catapults, arresting gear and weapons elevators
yes, you are welcome in the Netherlands.....when we are welcome back in the UK!
Keep away until the UK returns to sanity. Some time in the 2030s, probably. We have lunatics running the asylum.
@@stephaniewilson3955 Glad to see an optimist on board.
Hey drach, just a suggestion: if you paid for those hotels with a credit card, you can always do a chargeback to get your credit card (or debit card if used as credit, I think) company to forcibly take the money back if they didn't deliver the services. I'm sure that's not just a USA thing.
59:44 Isn't Alan miliard the guy tho makes the insane bike?
Regarding BuORD/BuAER and follow-ons and questionable kit: DASH, sticking with Westinghouse jet engines, F3H Demon, F7U Gutless, SUBROC, Typhon (admittedly well ahead of its time), serious reliability problems with all early SAMs and AAMs, the 2.75" FFAR (dozens fired at a drone F6F failed to land a single hit), more recently LCS, CG-21, DD-21, EMALS, the entire Ford class design is pretty much a schoolhouse on how to wreck 50 years of incremental design refinement in a single blow......ridiculously underfunding naval air and retiring almost new or massively upgraded surface vessels (that in several key ways outpeyardsrformed their replacements), while continuing to build scores of billion dollar surface ships, most of which have never fired a shot in anger in spite of 20 years of continuous warfare. You might get the idea I'm very down on how the post-Cold War USN. You might be right.
Nobody knows how modern torpedoes will actually perform because only a few have ever been shot in anger and they didn't work because the Argentines didn't connect the wire guidance correctly. We do more live fire but there is nothing like wartime conditions to expose design and/or manufacturing flaws.
My uncle served on the USS Oakland (CL-95). They got hit by a dud aerial torpedo in the area of the forward magazine. The ordinance ratings managed to disarm the torpedo, or at least they think they were successful, and with damage control teams waiting shoved it out into the sea.
It's worth noting however that there have been a fair number of SINKEX where there has been missile, bomb, torpedo and occasionally naval gunfire (even some very modern ones involving land launched artillery missiles fired at the target ship). In all of the ones I've been able to find records of it was the (saved for last of course) torpedo hit that actually sinks the target. Some of these targets survive multiple hours of bombardment with no damage control efforts at all, with modern weapons on world war 2 or early cold war era ships even.
There has even been one instance in which an oil tanker needed to be scuttled and due to fires set to mitigate the oil spill danger there was no way to get anyone onboard to scuttle the ship. A destroyer fired nearly seventy 5" shells into the tanker at the waterline with no effect. The USS Bremerton then was asked to fire a torpedo into the tanker, which then immediately rolled and sank.
@@Stlaind The Torpedoes used in a SINKEX all get special treatment even if it is a random selection. The crew knows what is going to happen so they make sure to do all the maintenance. Naval weapons are better tested now than ever before but nothing real combat to find out if they actually work as advertised.
I have watched and listened to a lot of the 'Drydock' series, and on the whole they are not too Brit oriented and biased. This has been nice, but the answer to 'What film made post WW2 do you think has the most realistic portrayal of naval combat?' appears to be quite slanted. 'The Sinking of the Bismark' has very little action in it, and is more about everyone on land running about in a panic. So, if this is the criteria for an accurate WW II naval war movie, then 'In Harm's Way' (1965) has a lot more detail and 'action' of this type, as well as a lot more actual naval war action as well. Here are 2 movies that are at least the equal, or arguably surpass 'Das Boot' in depicting accurate/realistic naval submarine warfare: 'The Enemy Below (1957), and 'U-571' (2000). The movie 'Pearl Harbor' (2001) has a lot of a love story in it (typical Hollywood), but the scenes on the actual Japanese attack, and later the Doolittle Raid off the carrier Hornet are quite accurate and very realistic as well.
"A Short drop and a quick stop" 48:30
Forget the range, let's focus on torpedoes that actually explode when they reached the target.
Drach the biggest risk of to a US DDG and CG class ships in storms is the very real risk of ripping the sonar dome off. If that happens the damage to the bow forces the ship to move no faster than 5 knots. I'm sure I don't need to point out the other issues that would cause a ship in a heavy storm
Me: I'm just going to watch a few questions for 15-20 minutes
Me now: Okay, so I've watched almost all of the video over an hour. I have no impulse control
Re: 00:49:21 When did naval vessels become weather-proof, if ever?
Here is USS Independence (CV-62) trying to be a sub in 1977 (and washing most of the airwing in saltwater): www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cv62-77/013.htm
48:40 Devils Advocate while I disagree with what the Japanese submarine captain did then the same rationale can be applied to the Allies of that in the Laconia incident and also the Allies significantly disrupting Luftwaffe rescue efforts in the English Channel of shot down airmen. Someone who you don't capture is someone who can come back and fight again. Lòoked at it this way then the actions could make sense.
Once again thanks to everyone for the great questions a thanks to Drachinifel for some great answers.
Note on "Das Boot": the German "Boot" is pronounced about the same way as English "boat". When you pronounce it like the English "boot", it becomes an Oktoberfest beer challenge instead. ;)
There is non more shameless than an anti aircraft missile or torpedo manufacturer. Various US, UK and German torpedoes just didn't work early in ww2. The performance of rapier during the Falklands war was disgraceful and as far as I can tell the tigerfish was so useless that no one bothered to use it.
What were blastbags on the turrets for?
For that matter, how accurate is The Caine Mutiny and Master and Commander?
The ironic part is that the same submarine that torpedoed Royal Oak torpedoed Warspite and both were duds.
I was under the impression that nuclear subs were pretty much weatherproof anywhere they could dive. Weather is almost by definition up on the surface.
I'm not sure what to say about the trip. In MA we're taking things slowly, but it's could all go kerploie at a moment's notice if the disease numbers spike. I would also be careful about making travel plans while the political situation is so unstable; it's unlikely to result in anything but you might suddenly find yourself locked out if the protests are crazy.
You need to make a "With the Best Will in the World" shirt with a particular vicious battleship picture of Vanguard on it. It's such a wonderfully British phrase.
Strategically speaking, nothing the Axis powers could do was ever going to bring about a naval victory. The details were of course very significant to the people directly involved with any given campaign, and a matter of life and death; but the naval details were never going to change the outcome of the war, because none of the Axis powers had anywhere near the industrial capacity or the shipyards to keep up with the Allies' ability to just launch more warships. If the Axis had managed to build better ships and made better use of them, they still would've lost the naval war, especially once America became involved. Call it a "zerg rush" if you will. When the enemy can launch five new capital ships for every one you can launch, and can keep doing that indefinitely, the details can play out in a lot of ways, but they all have one thing in common: you lose.
If the Axis was going to win, they were going to have to win on land, or in the air. They could not win a naval victory. They were never going to have enough ships for it.
I mean, you can cite Admiral Yi, naval superhero, and claim that the number of ships isn't important if you have sufficiently amazing leadership. But comparing the Allied navies of WWII to the Japanese invasion force that Yi faced, doesn't hold up when you look at it too closely. The situation is not the same. If you'd given Yi command of the Axis navies, he might have been creative enough to pull off some impressive tactical victories, but he could not have changed the outcome of the war.
No, the threat that the Axis navies posed to the Allies, was a non-war-outcome-altering threat. Certainly, they could cost allied navies (and in some cases other forces that the navies were supporting) a lot of ships and lives and resources and so forth.
What did you think of the Dutch film: The Admiral?
Can anyone give me the time stamp and episode of dry dock in which reach had a very funny story of weird and funny ship names? I want to rewatch that but I can’t find it anywhere...
For accurate naval war movie I nominate "The Enemy Below" 1957 for consideration. Am I way off base?
Don't be sorry about wanting a harsh end to a monster. That's Justice and is the concern of every man, or should be.